Emma Goldman-Sherman
His two sons talk in the back of the cave
where they’ve buried this honorable man. Emma Goldman-Sherman
He tried to kill me, said I had to be sacrificed.
He threw me out, said I should die with my mom in the desert.
Why do we grieve for him when he was such an ass?
Don’t slander the ass, joked Ishmael. Emma Goldman-Sherman
You’re right, asses don’t act half as bad,
said Isaac, as they stood together.
You got more of him than I did.
You wanted more, the way he was? Emma Goldman-Sherman
He didn’t see me. I didn’t matter. Why
do we feel so sad? We mourn what we didn’t have.
And yet I loved him. So did I. I couldn’t help it.
My heart. My heart. Two brothers, one grave.
Listen to Emma Goldman-Sherman’s Abraham’s Daughters at The Parsnip Ship
Abraham’s Daughters is a mythic play about colonialism and identity. A finalist for the Henley Rose Award, Risk is This at Cutting Ball, and Waterworks, it is available for a world premiere.
Synopsis: Although Abraham is a Jew from Flushing, and he only has one daughter, Maxine, and her only daughter Racie is a lesbian, Abraham still believes he’ll be the Father of Nations. He moves to Tel Aviv in search of his first love, Haajar. When he discovers Haajar’s daughter has five Palestinian Muslim sons, he goes to Nablus in the midst of the first Intifada to claim them as his own.
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Emma Goldman-Sherman's plays have been produced on 4 continents and include Abraham's Daughters which is available as a podcast at TheParsnipShip.com. Their poetry has been published or is forthcoming in Toyon (w/Arabic translation), Exist Otherwise, The Mersey Review, Gigantic Sequins, Writers Resist and others. Their award-winning microfiction is anthologized in Best Microfiction 2025 and the Fish Anthology of 2023. They work as a neuro-affirming coach and teach for the Dramatists Guild Institute and PlayPenn. Emma supports writers and artists at bravespace.online. They write about post-traumatic growth at goldmansherman.substack.com.